(Lap)topless meetings
Published March 29th, 2008One reason I decided to work for myself 11 years ago was to avoid going to meetings.  At one place I labored back in the early 90s, I was astonished to discover a few months into the job that several people did nothing except attend meetings.  I’d have stuff to do (”Ahhh!!!”), but they’d settle into a conference room chair like they were slipping into a Barcolounger to watch a few hours of college basketball (”Ahhhh…”). Now, at the few meetings I do attend, things have gotten even worse, because the meeting weenies aren’t even paying attention.  They’re fiddling with their Blackberries.  They pretend to work by attending a meeting — while simultaneously pretending to work by sending email.  It’s a two-fer for the TPS report crowd. Three cheers, then, for the folks at Adaptive Path, who have banned laptops and wireless devices from their meetings, according to 43folders.  The goal is to get people to focus on both the task at hand and the people across the table. Meetings are becoming more productive, the Adaptive Pathers say.  Maybe now they’ll also become less numerous. Related:  Merlin Mann has 9 tips for running more productive meetings.
Adam Schorr on April 8, 2008
I totally agree with the goal of having more productive meetings (and fewer meetings). But I take a different approach than the one you describe. I’m not for banning things such as Blackberries, laptops, etc. That’s the cheap and lazy approach. It’s very Soviet Union.
If you want meeting attendees engaged and focused, then it’s your job to engage them. Make sure you are more interesting than whatever else they might want to play with. If you can’t be interesting enough, then don’t have the meeting - nobody cares.